How much do you guys make a year in this business, seriously, dont exagerate..

This will be my first year in the business on my own and am very exited about it...:gmctruck:

mtmower

03-20-2012, 12:35 PM

Congratulations. It can be very fulfilling work.

You aren't going to get a fair answer from anyone without knowing what your business will consist of. I guess to compare apples to apples you need to describe what all your business will entail. Type of labor offered, # of employees, etc.

For instance, I started from scratch. I have one part time employee (my wife). We do only a small amount of landscape maintenance. Primarily money comes from weekly mowing. I also aerate, dethatch, have our pesticide license and apply fertilizer and weed killer, fall cleanups and such. I try to have four 10 hr. days of weekly contracts. This allows for maintenance, break down repairs, weather, additional side work and my aerations and fert/spray, and family/play time/church. Of course on high growing weeks I may be running closer to six and seven days but I also get away with more down time later in the season. In the winter I plow snow.

Another factor is if you can and are willing to do all your own maintenance and repairs. I cringe when I think what it would cost to pay someone to maintain my equipment.

Also geography plays a large part in earnings.

For the last couple of years I've been struggling with weather to add a employee. It's seems often I hear more negative then positive from people who have, plus I haven't run across that perfect employee yet. IMO you have to go very big or stay solo to make a decent money to stress ratio work.

Speaking of monies, it can be a lot of money out of pocket the first several years which equals tax right offs, but unless someone handed you equipment and accounts, typically you won't be rolling in the $s right away.

I could work harder and bring even more money in. I was a automotive service writer and manager for roughly 17 years, which became a six day a week 70-80 hr a week job. Sure the money was good, but the stress and time away from my family just wasn't worth it. One of the main reasons I, and many others like us, chose this work is to have more time off for family and fun.

After roughly 10 years, that being said, I probably show about 55-60ish. with more free time and less stress. My wife also works at our local college which helps during our no-snow winters.

Good luck.

Paradise Landscape

03-20-2012, 01:57 PM

oh wow, that income is better than i what i am currently making at my full time job which has me in the 30s, so im doing the lawn service as a side job and eventually want to grow to make it my full time job...